Al Qaeda's 'external communications officer' weighs in on dispute over Syria | FDD's Long War Journal

The dispute between Hay’at Tahrir al Sham (HTS) and al Qaeda’s senior leadership has revealed new alleged details about the jihadists’ communications. Some of the issues at the heart of the disagreement involve the ability of HTS leaders to communicate with Ayman al Zawahiri and the role played by Zawahiri’s deputies abroad. One senior HTS figure, known as Atoun, or Abu Abdullah al-Shaami (pictured on the right), recently released a defense of his group’s disassociation from al Qaeda. Atoun claimed that there were lengthy disruptions in communications with Zawahiri.* This prompted an unprecedented response from another jihadist known as Abu Abdullah, who identifies himself as an “external communication officer” in al Qaeda’s communication department. As Sahab, al Qaeda’s propaganda arm, posted his two –page reply online on Nov. 30, followed by a translation . The existence...